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A protester outside of the Moms For Liberty summit in downtown Tampa. Credit: Photo via Dave Decker<\/p>\nA protester outside of the Moms For Liberty summit in downtown Tampa. Credit: Photo via Dave Decker<\/p>\n
Two organizations say they\u2019re investing a quarter of a million dollars to support \u201cpro-equality, pro-academic freedom\u201d school board candidates this election season.<\/p>\n
The Equality Florida Political Action Committee and Southern Poverty Law Center Action Fund announced Friday morning that the $250,000 will go toward 300,000 pieces of mail to reach more than 200,000 voters.<\/p>\n
The mailers are for \u201ccandidates in critical Florida school board races,\u201d which include four in Orange County, three in Sarasota County, two in Seminole County, and one each in Hillsborough, Palm Beach, Pinellas, and Osceola counties.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe program aims to help voters identify which candidates are committed to getting politics out of the classroom and to recentering schools away from censorship and back toward student success,\u201d a news release announcing the effort reads.<\/p>\n
Highlighting Gov. Ron DeSantis\u2019 and Moms for Liberty\u2019s focus on school board races in resent years, the organizations are looking to counter those efforts.<\/p>\n
The Florida Trib\u00a0reported<\/a>\u00a0last month that Moms for Liberty, a Florida-born organization with nationwide reach, had not invested in any school board races this cycle.<\/p>\n \u201cMoms for Liberty\u2019s influence has been on a long decline in its home state as the organization faced a wave of resignations, chapter dissolutions and scandals among Moms for Liberty leadership,\u201d the Trib reported.<\/p>\n The Moms for Liberty\u00a0website<\/a>\u00a0does list nine endorsements for school board candidates in Florida, although it seems outdated given that three are not running for reelection and one lost her 2024 race. According to its own count, the organization\u2019s endorsements in Florida in 2022 won at a rate of 80%.<\/p>\n In 2022, most DeSantis backed school board candidates won. In\u00a02024, 11 of his 24 endorsements lost<\/a>\u00a0in the primary elections, six won, and seven faced runoffs.<\/p>\n Joe Saunders, director of Equality Florida\u2019s PAC, said that this year the organization is \u201cbringing an end to the extremism and sideshows.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cTogether, we can fire Moms for Liberty, get politics out of our classrooms, and elect public school champions who believe in our teachers and will fight for the safety and dignity of every student,\u201d Saunders said in the news release.<\/p>\n Another $150,000 is dedicated to digital ads and direct voter contact, the organizations say.<\/p>\n DeSantis\u2019 time in office has been marked by \u201cculture war\u201d issues like\u00a0more strictly regulating<\/a>\u00a0what books students may read in school,\u00a0punishing teachers<\/a>\u00a0who do not stick to pronouns for students according to their gender assigned at birth, and the Florida Board of Education\u00a0formally adopting<\/a>\u00a0a conservative vision for education in the state.<\/p>\n Pitch in to help make the Tampa Bay Journalism Project a success.<\/a><\/p>\n Subscribe to Creative Loafing newsletters.<\/a><\/p>\n Follow us:\u00a0Google News<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0NewsBreak<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Reddit<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Instagram<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Facebook\u00a0<\/a>|\u00a0BlueSky<\/a><\/p>\n This article appears in August 13 \u2013 19, 2026<\/a>.<\/p>\n \n\tRelated\n<\/p>\n \t